大象传媒

Donald Macleod tells the story of Beethoven鈥檚 harrowing personal crisis of 1802 and Heiligenstadt Testament, a remarkable personal document only discovered after his death.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composed piano music in the form of themes and variations across his entire career - from his earliest published work to his late, titanic 鈥淒iabelli Variations鈥�, lasting nearly an hour. And Beethoven鈥檚 life can itself be seen as a set of variations on a theme: recurring episodes of unrequited love, artistic anguish, angry fallings-out and constant striving for the highest pinnacle of musical achievement. Yet Beethoven鈥檚 piano variations often lie in the shadow of his 32 great sonatas for the instrument. This week, Donald Macleod puts that right - shining a light on this remarkable corpus of work, as well another often-overlooked genre: his piano bagatelles.

By the first years of the 19th century, Beethoven had composed a flurry of masterpieces - among them his first two symphonies and the so-called Moonlight Sonata - which had established him as the leading figure in European music. Yet the months either side of the pivotal year of 1802 would also see Beethoven in the midst of his most profound existential and musical crisis: one in which he鈥檇 confront physical and psychological torment and re-emerge, transformed. Donald Macleod tells the story, featuring a complete performance of the composer鈥檚 Op 34 Piano Variations, and his rarely heard oratorio 鈥淐hrist On The Mount Of Olives鈥�.

Variations in D on 鈥淩ule Britannia!鈥�, WoO 79
Cecile Ousset, piano

Variations in F, Op 34
Rudolf Buchbinder, piano

Christ On The Mount Of Olives (excerpt), Op 85
V. Recitativo: Verk眉ndet, Seraph (Jesus, Seraph)
VI. Duetto: So ruhe denn mit ganzer Schwere (Jesus, Seraph)
VII. Recitativo: Willkommen, Tod! (Jesus)
VIII. Chor der Krieger : Wir haben ihn gesehen
Luba Orgonasova (soprano, Seraph)
Pl谩cido Domingo (tenor, Jesus)
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Kent Nagano, conductor

Seven Bagatelles, Op 33
Melvyn Tan, fortepiano

Producer: Steven Rajam